“The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can touch the poison of hatred without being harmed.  Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light”

The girl in the mirror stared right into my eyes, speaking under her breath, "Who do you think am I waging this war for, my dear ?", at which the last word was leaving her naturally red lips pursed in disgust.

My father used to speak to my mother in this way. My dear. It was just that she never answered anything suchlike aside from nodding at everything he demanded. As she kept her side of the bargain. At least for a time. Now she has been gone for 7 years after my grandfather Azulon had thwarted her plans.
Not that those ever were any good for me yet they might could have kept my father from chosing me to act as a substitute.

At least he loves me more than my mother did. I am not like her, not a woman of no consequence. Not one to be bossed around.

Father and I actually talk a lot about our plans. We really do talk... 

But yet I'm stuck for an answer to that either more or less rhetorical question he had asked me the other day.

No answer is an answer.

And it's haunting me.

- - - -

It was this first day at the end of winter one could feel the isle coming out of hibernation. The balmy breeze of fragrant fresh air during sunrise annuciated a sun-drenched sky whose rays would probably melt the last thin layer of snow covering the hills and woods. Poor leaves having survived the ever soft winter were already glittering in the sunlight, catching a foretaste of spring whilst being watered by the tears of snow. 

It was about time that I set out for the hightest peak of this isle's hills where I always practised meditation. On its way, I could downright feel the earth breathing out dew after soaking up the sun's warmth. Having reached the peak, I enjoyed the view over the landscape just like I did in the past hundred years, watching the lemurs bidding another day welcome on the treetops. My love for this isle was beyond words, it was a place directly connected with the Spirit World. It was located to the south of the Eastern Air Temple and nowhere to be found - not marked on any map of the material world.

It was the isle my human body shall leave forever so as to accomplish my final, earthly task.